Chapter 3

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Freya and Ramirez entered the room, followed closely by James at about eleven that night. Otis and Lucy were asleep in the other room, but Hunter sat in the main room, looking out the window still. He jumped when he heard the door open.

“We’re hoooome!” James called in a sing-song tone.

“SHHHH!” Hunter shushed him quickly, dropping his voice to an angry whisper. “Lucy and Otis are sleeping! Where the fuck have you two been!?”

“Uhhhh… English lessons?” James chuckled nervously. “And Freya was practicing…”

“For 12 hours!?” Hunter continued, arguing with him. “Where did you go!? Tell me!”

Ramirez stepped in front of James, reassuring him that he would take care of this. He cleared his throat and spoke English… really, really bad English. “Uhhh… drink… bar… ummm… brute back drink!”

Hunter raised an eyebrow. Ramirez shrugged, defeated.

“So… you mean to tell me you went to a bar and brought us all drinks? How exactly did you manage that and how much did you get?” Hunter seemed a bit happier now that there was alcohol involved. Freya set down her large handbag and pulled out three bottles of scotch whiskey and smiled. Hunter ran over immediately and picked one up.

“Liquid gold…” he laughed, opening the bottle and smelling the rim. “Ahh… I’m taking this with me tomorrow.”

“And where are you going tomorrow?” James took the bottle from Hunter and set it back down on the table.

“James I swear to fuck give me back my whiskey,” Hunter glared at him, growing serious until James gave him the bottle back. Hunter smiled and answered James’s question. “Anyway it’s none of your concern… I’ve just decided I’m going to learn how to play poker, that’s all.”

“You can’t go to a casino until you’re 18, you know that, right?” James crossed his arms.

“Well… I can lie about my age! I look 18, don’t I? Besides, I’m turning 18 in March,” Hunter opened the scotch bottle up again and took a small swig.

“That’s 5 months away!”

“So what?”

“That’s reckless behavior. Plus, you could get arrested or worse! If you started gambling, you could cause us to lose all we’ve got!”

“But if I win… then we could be rich! And not just the shit I bagged today in the streets. Wealthy dude had 95 bucks on him, a ring, and a watch!”

“Wait… 95 bucks!? How the hell did you get that much money!?” James seemed baffled as he put the other two bottles in the cabinet.

“Lucky shot, I guess. And anyway, how much do we have now?”

“Well… English lessons are pretty cheap. 10 cents each lesson. Otis is in charge of money, so he would know how much we would have by the time Ramirez and Freya are done learning. Too bad he’s asleep…”

“As should you. I fell into a window stealing 2 bucks today, so I’m not getting any sleep any time soon,” Hunter took his bottle over to the bench by the window. “I might go out and see what I can get for the watch and ring at the pawn shop if it’s not closed…”

“Oh it’s closed. We traded in a gun for about 20 dollars… which we may or may not have spent all on a refrigerator at the homestore and-“

“Wow. You bought a fridge. WE HAVE NO ELECTRICITY OTHER THAN THAT SOCKET OVER THERE AND THE LIGHTBULB ABOVE THE TABLE!!!”

Ramirez and Freya shuffled a bit towards the bedroom and shut the door behind them slowly. Now James and Hunter were alone, and Hunter was pissed.

“I get what you’re saying, but think of all the storage we could have for food! And now that you have all that money, we could buy a better apartment! And not just rent it either-“

“THERE WOULD BE NO MONEY LEFT IF WE SOMEHOW BOUGHT A BETTER APARTMENT!!”

“Jeez… Hunter… calm down…” James took a step back.

“HOW CAN I CALM DOWN WHEN I’M THE ONLY ONE KEEPING THIS GROUP FROM GOING OVER THE EDGE!!??” Hunter stepped towards James, angry and yelling now. “WITHOUT ME AND LUCY, YOU WOULD ALL BE DEAD BY NOW WITH ALL THESE USELESS PURCHASES!!”

James backed up a bit more, kind of shrinking back every time Hunter shouted. “Hunter, come on… we can get more money. It’s not that big of a deal…”

“We have no warmth, we have no food. All we have are worthless, delinquent SHIT-SHOWS!” Hunter realized what he had just said, reality snapping through his head and making him laugh hysterically and step away. James, who was backed into a corner, was still tense and scared, and he sniffed softly. Hunter leaned on the table, his head low. Without speaking to James, he muttered. “Sorry… sorry…”

James, realizing Hunter was done screaming, immediately ran into the bedroom and slammed the door behind him.

“James… James, come on! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it, I-“ Hunter groaned and slammed his hand against the table. He stormed out of the apartment and slammed the door as well, running down the stairs and out onto the street, walking swiftly across the street towards the pawn shop. The place was indeed locked up, so he took a rock and ran around to the alley next to the building, busting open the lock and sneaking inside the place. He opened the glass case by shattering it, and took out the guns inside, stuffing them inside of the empty potato sack he had found next to the door. He opened the cash register and searched through it, putting all the money inside in the sack. He searched the entire store, putting things that seemed valuable inside the bag and leaving no fingerprints behind. After cleaning up his tracks, he dragged the bag out onto the street again, still busy even at 12 in the morning. He wondered how he would smuggle all of this stuff back to the apartment without being caught. He tout the bag in a trash sack in the alley and waited until there were no cars at that moment before running as fast as possible to the other side of the road once more.

Exhausted now, Hunter dragged both him and the back up the stairs and dropped the bag off inside, in front of the bedroom door. With a pencil and a bit of cardboard, he wrote a note; Sorry I was rude. I stole all of this from the pawn shop so enjoy the money. I don’t really know how much is in there, but you now have guns. Good luck getting ammo because I forgot. I’ll be back at some point. I’m sorry again.

After writing the note, he placed the piece on the potato sack and walked out of the apartment again, walking down the sidewalk into the night… towards the casino…

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The place was lively and full of people. The smell of cigar smoke burned the inside of Hunter’s nose with its bitter scent. He strolled down to where people were gathered around a large poker table, playing a round. Hunter watched intently, observing all of the players betting it all while those watching bet on who’s going to win. Hunter just watched. A staff member of the casino placed a hand on his shoulder and asked how old he was.

“I’m 18. I turned 18 in August,” Hunter spoke with a confident tone to support his lie, and the staff believed it and walked away. Hunter looked shocked that his plan worked, and he mumbled to himself, “Do I really look older than I am?”

On the other side of the casino, a fistfight broke out between two black jack players, one accusing the other of cheating. Hunter got distracted and decided to watch the brawlers instead, forgetting about the game. The two kicked and punched, one threw the other on the black jack table. The man on the table got his footing and pulled out a gun from his pocket.

‘How did he even get that in here, past security!?’ Hunter’s jaw dropped as the man pulled the trigger on the other, making him fall on the ground with a hole in his right shoulder. The staff handled the deranged man, grabbing him by the arms and pulling him back, screaming, “IT’S JUST A GAME!” And “I’M CALLING THE POLICE!”

The gunshot had caused all of the other game players to evacuate the casino, but Hunter stayed and watched the rest of the chaos unfold whilst hiding behind a slot machine. Eventually, when the cops arrived, he left, exiting from the back of the building. He remembered exactly why he came and cursed himself out for forgetting and getting distracted like a child. He debated on whether or not he should go back home to the apartment. The others were most likely still pissed at him, and he didn’t want to make matters worse. All he could do is wait for morning to come when they realize he’s gone.

(Well now you know that Hunter steals shit when he’s mad)